Exploits, Hackers and Frauds Destroy $332 Million in Crypto Holdings in September: CertiK

The crypto market failed to post a bullish discovery in September, but that didn't stop malicious entities from stealing funds.

According to CertIK's latest statistics, nearly $332 million in various digital assets were lost to exploitation, hacking and fraud in September.

September sees record breaking losses

Cash withdrawal scams accounted for about $1.9 million, while flash loans accounted for about $0.4 million. According to the latest data shared by the Blockchain Intelligence platform, crypto-related exploits reached $329.8 million in comparison.

CertK contributed the largest portion of this month's losses to the Hong Kong-based decentralized cross-chain transfer protocol on September 23rd Mixin Network. This breach resulted in a $200 million loss, primarily due to a security breach in the cloud service provider.

#CertiKStatsAlert 🚨

Combining all events in September, we found that ~$332M was lost to exploitation, hacking and fraud.

Withdrawal fraud was ~$1.9M.

Flash loans were ~$0.4M.

Exploitation was ~$329.8M.

See more details below 👇 pic.twitter.com/DMFN9LWU8V

— CertiKAlert (@CertiKAlert) September 30, 2023

CoinEX suffered the second biggest attack with losses of $53.1 million. North Korea's state-backed Lazarus group is believed to have orchestrated the attack. Other major events of the month were Stake.com and crypto exchange HTX, which trailed with losses of $41 million and $7 million, respectively.

Q3 is the worst in Crypto exploits

Highlighting it, September not only saw an increase in crypto-related exploits, but also cemented the third quarter as the worst period in terms of losses for the rental industry. According to the Beosin Global Web3 Security Report by another blockchain security firm, crypto projects lost nearly $889 million in Q3 due to hacking, phishing scams, and fraud.

There were 43 significant attacks that caused losses of approximately $540.16 million. Of this, phishing scams contributed to a loss of $66.15 million, while 81 rag pools contributed to a combined loss of $282.96 million.

In Q3, the loss exceeded the total for the first two quarters of 2023. It is estimated to be around $330 million in Q1 2023 and $333 million in Q2 2023 and finally increased to $889.26 million in Q3.

DeFi continues to be the most targeted sector, with 29 attacks comprising 67.4% of total incidents. Among the different types of projects, public chains experienced the biggest losses, with Ethereum bearing the brunt of the burden, accumulating a loss of $227 million. Ethereum has endured the highest frequency of attacks, with a total of 16 incidents.

In addition, there were 9 private key deals in this quarter, which resulted in significant losses among the attack types, amounting to $223 million.